The present invention relates in general to network event management and, in particular, to a system and method for dynamically sensing an asynchronous network event within a modular framework for network event processing.
Information networks interconnecting a wide range of computational resources have become a mainstay of corporate enterprise computing environments. Typically, several host computer systems are interconnected internally over an intranetwork to which individual workstations and network resources are connected. These intranetworks, also known as local area networks (LANs), make legacy databases and information resources widely available for access and utilization throughout the corporation. These same corporate resources can also be interconnected to wide area networks (WANs), including public information internetworks such as the Internet, to enable internal users access to remote computational resources, such as the World Wide Web, and to allow outside users access to select corporate resources for the purpose of completing limited transactions or data transfer.
Structurally, these corporate networks generally are made up of a set of localized, often heterogeneous, subnetworks interconnected through a series of routers, hubs, bridges, gateways, and similar devices. Managing these subnetworks and the network as a whole has become increasingly complex and difficult as the size and topology of networks have grown. The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), described generally in W. Stallings, xe2x80x9cSNMP, SNMPv2, SNMPv3, and RMON 1 and 2,xe2x80x9d Chs. 1-4, Addison Wesley Longman (1999), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, defines a standardized framework of managers and agents for managing TCP/IP-based networks. Under the SNMP scheme, each manager is responsible for managing all or part of the network on behalf of network management applications and users. In turn, each agent, also known as a sensor or listener, is responsible for collecting and maintaining local management information and delivering that information to one of the managers through messages in the form of SNMP traps or in response to a polling request by the manager. Note the functionality of an agent can also be incorporated directly into a manager.
A wide range of SNMP-compatible, manager/agent point products are presently available to meet various network management and security needs, such as applications for monitoring network performance and availability and proactively detecting network security vulnerabilities. One such application is the Sniffer Total Network Visibility (TNV) product, licensed by Network Associates, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. By way of example, the Sniffer TNV product identifies network performance and security concerns through remote agents. A central manager analyzes the information collected by the remote agents and can generate a log file for use in identifying network fault and performance areas of interest. While useful for managing and troubleshooting enterprise computing environments, the Sniffer TNV manager is a dedicated application tied to a specific set of remote agents with whom the manager communicates via SNMP traps for indicating events unique to vendor specific network equipment.
Similarly, the OpenView product suite, licensed by Hewlett Packard Company, Palo Alto, Calif., provides a modular manager which responds to SNMP traps for use in legacy computing environments. The Open View manager reports and can log the receipt of network events and includes an application programming interface (API) into which can be written plug-in actor applications. Likewise, the PATROL product, licensed by BMC Software, Houston, Tex., provides a management infrastructure for providing proactive monitoring and management of enterprise-wide computational resources through one or more SNMP managers. PATROL Knowledge Modules containing application-specific intelligence can be deployed to servers for reporting parameters and management options back to manager consoles.
The foregoing SNMP-based products represent specialized vertical products focused on resolving a particularized problem through vendor specific means. None provide a generic interface capable on interconnecting remote agents to actors via a centralized management framework. More specifically, there is no ability to flexibly and cooperatively integrate a plurality of heterogeneous manager/agent point products or response mechanisms into a single centralized manager. For instance, each of the products can generate a log file specific to their respective interface, yet the log files are in non-uniform, proprietary formats which require analysis and management separate from other point products.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach to providing a modular framework for sensing network events in a distributed computing environment. Such a modular framework would preferably export a standardized interface into which a plurality of heterogeneous agents and sensors could be integrated in a flexible xe2x80x9cplug-inxe2x80x9d fashion. There is a further need for a modular framework flexibly supporting active and passive agent/sensor modules, each of which can include one or more control threads for receiving or sensing the occurrence of network events.
The present invention provides a system and method for dynamically sensing an asynchronous network event within a modular framework for network event processing. Sensors can flexibly be xe2x80x9cplugged inxe2x80x9d to a centralized network event management framework for sensing the occurrence of network events. Action sets define relationships between the network events and actions and event filters which can be executed in a prioritized fashion.
An embodiment of the present invention is a system and a method for dynamically sensing an asynchronous network event within a modular framework for network event processing. An occurrence of asynchronous network events is sensed on one or more network event sensors. Each such sensor implements a common interface via which the sensor can be connected to the modular framework. At least one port over which can be received a message from a network agent indicating the occurrence of a network event is passively monitored. The message includes event data pertinent to the network event. The message is received over the at least one port via a listener thread and staged into a holding structure within which can be placed a plurality of received messages. Each received message is iteratively removed from the holding structure via a handler thread. An action set mapping corresponding to each received message is retrieved and an action set is generated from the action set mapping via a generator process. The generated action set is enqueued onto an event queue. Each generated action set is processed by invoking a process method on the generated action set next identified for processing within the event queue. The process method is repeated for any further generated action sets in the event queue.
Still other embodiments of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein is described embodiments of the invention by way of illustrating the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the spirit and the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.